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tv   Special Report With Bret Baier  FOX News  March 14, 2017 1:00am-2:01am PDT

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surprising. excuse me, pardon me. what's not surprising? how much money matt saved by switching to geico. could i get my parking validated? fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more. never miss an episode of "the five." that's it. "special report" is next. >> bret: this is a fox news alert. i am bret baier. welcome to washington. republican plan to repeal and replace obamacare is being put to its first test and now lawmakers are going to have to sell results that the congressional budget office has put out. being characterized as pretty rough. the reports on the house health care plan at some of the numbers are giving fuel to critics, but the white house says the house bill actually ensure more people than currently covered. were going to go over the numbers and just a few minutes, house speaker paul ryan will join us live with his reaction to the congressional budget office reports. we begin with chief congressional correspondent
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mike emanuel, who joins us live from capitol hill tonight where lawmakers are getting their first look at these numbers. >> good evening. congressional budget office projects 14 million people would lose health care coverage next year with this republican health care proposal. by 2020 committed estimates 21 million fewer people would have coverage period that would grow to 24 million and the next decade. cbo predicts the g.o.p. plan would decrease the budget deficit over a ten-year period. a senior trump administration officials came up quickly to say they strenuously disagree with the coverage assessment. >> we believe the plan we are putting in place is going to insure more individuals than currently our insured. we think the cbo has it wrong. >> paul ryan has been bracing for bad projection because this republican package doesn't force people to buy insurance. >> the one thing i'm certain will happen is the cbo will say not as many people will get
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coverage. this isn't a government mandate. >> white house budget director noted the cbo is wrong on health care before. speaker of the cbo was right about obamacare to begin with, there would be 8 million more people on it today. >> president predicted on twitter that the g.o.p. will unite. "obamacare is imploding. it's a disaster and 2017 will be the worst year yet by far." republicans will come together and save the day. top democrats are taking swipes at the president. >> like much of his administration, trumpcare is another game of say one thing, do another. figure one conservative critics on fox news sunday the president is willing to cut a deal. >> the president has been very clear he wants negotiation. they are open. i hope they will work with us great i hope the speaker and leadership will have the same attitude of the white house does. let's work together and find a plan that works for the american people. >> one senate conservative urged jordan and others to hold the
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line. >> do not walk the plank and vote for a bill that cannot pass the senate. to speak with the president and ryan have suggested failure to fix the problem could lead to a bloodbath. >> if we don't keep our word. >> senate majority leader reordered rated -- reiterated the need to act. >> the obamacare status quo is simply not an option. we have an obligation to the american people to repeal and replace obamacare. >> the next step is the house budget committee expected to take two separate components assessed by house committees last week and combine them into one bill. it's still early here, people returning from their home districts. those who liked the package found something to like in the cbo package and those who dislike and are still against the plan. >> bret: mike emanuel on the hill. house speaker paul ryan has been
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selling and defending the republican health care plan. he joins us from janesville, wisconsin, with reaction to the congressional budget office's report. mr. speaker, thanks for being here. reaction on the hill is a little stunned at the number of people who would be uninsured. saying 24 million by 2026 would be uninsured relative to the current law. your reaction on the numbers and what they mean. >> actually if you read the reports, i'm encouraged by it. it exceeded my expectations. tom price and mick mulvaney mentioned the estimates before without more, 25 million people would be on obamacare today. less than half of that are. look at the reason why they said this would happen. we are saying the government is not going to force people devise something they don't want to buy. if we end on obamacare mandate that says you must buy this plan.
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people aren't going to buy it. of course are going to suggest that if we're not going to make something -- make people do something they don't want to do, they're not going to do it. that's what behind -- that's what's behind this. once the reforms kick in, it will lower premiums. stabilizes the market. $1.2 trillion spending cut, $883 billion tax cut in three and $37 billion in deficit reduction. of course the cbo was going to say if you're not going to force people to buy something they don't want to buy, they won't buy it. but they are saying our reforms will kick in a lower premiums and make health care more accessible. i want to say one more thing and then i will stop talking. this is part one of a three-part plan. that's why i'm excited. just this, they say, lowers premiums, stabilizes the market and gives people more choices
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and freedom. part two is tom price at hhs brings more choice and competition for left the states open up markets which will lower prices even more. part three is the other bills will be passing. interesting shopping across state lines. associate health care plans. medical liability reform, those will drop premiums even further and make health care even more accessible than what cbo is saying. >> bret: in this report, the cbo says basically you have to wait until 2026 to see costs go down. who is going to wait that long? >> that's actually not true. they say costs start going down in 2020 when the reforms kick in. we are doing a transition period. we want to make sure people can still have coverage and there's a seamless transition. they say in 2020, stabilizes the markets. don't forget one thing.
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obamacare is in the middle of a collapse. only five states have one insurer left. over 1,000 counties in america have only one insurer left. humana announced they are pulling out. that means zero plans in 2018 for those people. by the way, we got a letter from anthem, one of the biggest insurers, telling us if the status quo stays, they are going to surgically pull out of markets as well. put this against the backdrop that obamacare is collapsing. the insurers are telling us premium increases this year, 25% on average, will be even higher next year. this compared to the status quo is far better. i am excited about this analysis and yeah, i think they overestimate the uninsured number just like they overestimated who would be insured by obamacare. but i believe that if were not going to force people to buy something they don't want to buy, they won't buy it and that's kind of obvious. >> bret: hears the president today talking about health care and negotiations.
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>> the house plan will expand choice, lower cost, and expand access paired we are negotiating with everybody. it's a big fat, beautiful negotiation and hopefully will come up with something that's going to be really terrific. >> bret: isn't it true there is not such a big, fat, beautiful negotiation because you can't negotiate and still get in the reconciliation vehicle in order to have only 50 votes, 51 votes necessary to pass the senate for you don't have a lot of wiggle room here as far as what you can negotiate with on this first bill. is that true? >> yah, the first bill with the president is talking about is the three-pronged approach i just described. we are looking at the other bills want to pass that we can pass that are outside reconciliation and all the things the government can do that the hhs secretary controls to expand the market and deregulate and bring more choice and competition.
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we are making fine tuning touches to the reconciliation bill, working on getting the consensus in the house and senate to make sure we make this the best possible legislation. now that we have this encouraging score from the cbo, this gives more room to work on. moves through the committee process. we have gone through two committees, we have two more to go. then to the senate. this is a work in progress and we are excited about it. i am frankly encouraged. even cbo is telling us we stabilize the market, lower premiums, lowers the deficit, saves money and more importantly of course they're going to say if we're going to stop forcing people to buy something they don't want to buy, they are not going to buy it. that's why you have the uninsured numbers. >> bret: if you are encouraged by the cbo report, what is the cbo report you are discouraged by? >> i've seen a lot. i've been reading them half my life. the point i am saying is cbo validated.
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we are blocked granting medicaid back to the states, saving $880 billion there. this is an $883 billion tax cut for families and small businesses that helps lower their health care costs and it saves money and reduces the deficits. that's really good on all those points. what the cbo is also telling us, by having state-based high-risk pools, tax credits, you can buy what you want in health savings accounts, they are telling us our reforms stabilize the market and lower premiums when the reforms take place. you juxtapose that against a collapsing obamacare system, double-digit premium increases this year, worse next year. very few plans offered. down to one plan in 1 out of 3 counties. zero plans in some places next year. we are witnessing the collapse of obamacare and what cbo is telling us is the replacement plan stabilizes the situation, brings down costs. this is stage one of a three stage process.
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>> bret: understanding what you are saying about obamacare and what you are saying the insurance companies are telling you, we asked for people to write in on twitter, asked questions. "if we pass no plan and left the obamacare stand right now, contacts reform still still happen?" stick oh, no, it makes it extremely complicated. puts us a trillion dollars further down the path from doing tax reform. we can't get to the next budget either which is where tax reform is done. it really would gum up the works and make tax reform that much harder to achieve because we would have these obamacare taxes to deal with. >> bret: i want to ask you about one of your members of your caucus, congressman steve king tweeted out abouters. >> he understands culture and demographics our destiny. we can restore our civilization with somebody else's babies."
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he tried to explain that today for your thoughts on that in your reaction to it. >> i disagree with that statement. i haven't seen the context but i disagree. we are a melting pot. my families here because the potato stopped growing in ireland. this is what's beautiful about the american idea. we are a melting pot where people come from all walks of life to seek freedom and a better life. it's a beautiful idea that's there for everyone which is that the condition of your birth doesn't determine the outcome of your life. i really do believe in the american system of values, principles and the melting pot. that is what makes america great. i don't think that statement reflects what is special about this country. i would like to think, and i haven't spoken to steve, i would like to think he misspoke and it wasn't really meant the way that sounds very hopefully he has clarified that. >> bret: last time i was with you, asked you about reports
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that there was surveillance potentially on the trump campaign. you answered in a different kind of way. since then, there's been an uproar about president trump's tweets about this. today was the deadline on the house for hearing results from the justice department about where this wiretapping is coming from. so far, we haven't heard any response. do you know of anything about this and do you, what do you think of the deadline? should they produce some evidence? >> i have asked the intelligence committee to conduct an investigation to thoroughly scrub this matter. they are in the middle of the investigation. i don't know whether doj met their deadline or not, but i did ask the intelligence committee, democrats and republicans, doing this together to investigate this thoroughly. i have been briefed on the matter and i have seen no evidence that the tap occurred. that's when i think i was asked this weekend. >> bret: no evidence that you
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have seen so far. >> correct. but again, i don't want to get ahead of the intelligence committee. they are going to do a thorough investigation. >> bret: mr. speaker, we appreciate your time. always welcome. >> you bet. take care. >> bret: we turn to brit hume. you just heard that, the speaker saying these are encouraging numbers. >> well, he makes a pretty good case. i think this measure he is working on and the others that will come after it apparently will be a lot better than the status quo which is a collapsing system. but the eye-popping number on the number of people who will remain or become uninsured obviously something the republicans promoting this plan are going to have to -- they are going to be beaten over the head with that number. my sense is this number was
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expected and the question becomes okay, can they pass it through the house, get it to the senate and let the senate work with it? i would point you toward the interview yesterday that you showed a portion of an mike emanuel's piece with jim jordan of ohio who is very much a leader of the conservatives in the house, very much a leader of the freedom caucus. he was asked by chris wallace repeatedly, would he vote no on the plan if that's what comes to the house floor? i think there's been a widespread assumption that he and most of the members of the freedom caucus would vote no but he wouldn't say that. he ducked the question repeatedly. i thought that was telling. when it gets down to it, it may come to a binary choice. leave the status quo in place and go back on all campaign promises are vote this thing out in the recognition that won't be the final thing that comes back for the ultimate final vote. >> bret: i talked to a number
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of people on the helm essay the house potentially gets it through but that the house comes in the senate where the margin is very slim to get the 51 votes. you can only lose a couple of senators and the vice president breaks the vote. one of the things over there as you don't have a lot of leeway. that's what i was asking the speaker. there is not a lot of negotiation on this first bill. they can talk about all kinds of things down to in three phases. >> the thing they have to be most concerned about keeping in the bill are the tax credits which are what furnish the funds to help people who might lose their coverage, their old obamacare coverage, which they may or may not have liked by the way. but they would lose it and not being a position with their finances to buy a different plan. those tax credits are in place to do that and it's kind of central to the whole measure. and also the cost savings, as you mentioned, are also central
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to the measure as well. whatever compromise the senate comes up with or whatever rewritten bill the senate comes up with is going to have to keep that stuff in mind because a lot of other things, as paul ryan pointed out, are supposed to come later. tax reform and other things, they are dependent on getting this building block in place until they are going to need to figure out a way to do that. we have a long way to go. we are in the early stages. not only does bill have to pass the house, then something that might be quite different has to pass the senate, then they've got to negotiate a compromise that can go back and pass both houses. we are in an early stage and this reminds me of the old days when we use to legislate and there were compromises along the way. the perils of pauline and we haven't had that in so long that i sense a lot of journalists have forgotten what it's like. this is what it's like. >> bret: when was the last conference committee? thank you very much. we will turn around the sound from the speaker from a minority
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leader in the house, nancy pelosi and the senate minority leader chuck schumer about their thoughts a little bit later. the other big story of the day, east coast bracing for a blast of winter as a nor'easter begins to make it way from the nation's capital to maine. the storm could dump up to 18 inches of snow with blizzard like conditions forecasted. the storm is already affecting travel. chief washington correspondent james rosen has the latest tonight on the impact of this late-season storm. >> residents in and around chicago received up to 6 inches of snow on sunday and monday, prompting the delay or cancellation of some 500 flights at midway and o'hare airport. >> i am a heavy business traveler. i'm going to be traveling to chicago, so i'm really worried. >> in wisconsin and other counties near milwaukee, authorities issued a lake effect warning. eight to 15 inches by tuesday.
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in minnesota, residents reported driving conditions of zero visibility. >> march madness, whether it's a hockey tournament or whatever. we will get eight, 10 inches. >> traveling without impediment was the nor'easter itself. >> we see the sweep across the east coast eventually running towards maine. the big concerns here, very heavy snow and with it, very windy conditions. that's when you start to see these blizzard-like conditions paid >> major cities from washington and philadelphia, new york and boston forecasting upwards of a foot of snow was travel ground to a halt and downed power lines expected to impact tens of thousands. >> this kind of snow is dangerous. it will be dangerous on the roads. we want to urge everyone now to make plans to not be out on the roads tomorrow. >> at this hour, travel web site flightaware.com is reporting
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4600 flights scheduled for tuesday have been canceled and those cancellations are now starting to stretch into wednesday. it reminded from the heavens that if you want to see what an honest to god travel ban looks like, try 18 inches of snow. stay one james rosen at reagan national airport. up next, the wiretap answers that came today from the trump
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>> bret: the cost to clean up three dakota access pipeline protest camps could cost taxpayers more than $1 million. army corps of engineers says 835 industrial size trash bins were filled during the cleanup, not
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including lumber and propane tanks that were also removed. protesters came by the hundreds last year to protest the pipeline that they believe will impact drinking water and disturbed sacred tribal sites. as mentioned before, it is deadline day for the trump administration to provide proof that the president's new york offices were wiretapped. so far no evidence has been offered and as catherine herridge reports some in the administration are putting a spin on what the president meant. >> with a looming deadline to provide relevant documents about alleged wiretapping to congress, the white house spokesman said the president's tweets march 4th about the election is not literal. >> the president use the word wiretapping to mean broadly surveillance and other activities. >> asked that the white house instructed the justice department to provide records,
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spicer went on the offensive. >> in the past whenever we have these conversations, the acquisition from the press courts that we are interfering. you can't have it both ways. >> presidential counselor kellyanne conway suggested surveillance could be widesprea widespread. after wikileaks posted documents alleging the cia could turn phones televisions into recording devices. big i am not inspector gadget. i don't believe people are using their microwave to spy on the trump campaign. but i'm not in the job of having evidence pair that's what investigations are for. >> leading republican and critic of the president said the lack of evidence or evidence will be telling. >> the president has one of two choices. retract or provide the information that the american people deserve, because of his predecessor -- if his predecessor violated the law, we've got a serious issue. >> house intelligence committee deadline comes a week before the
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first hearing on the russian investigation where current and former administration officials including fbi director james comey are witnesses. the ranking democrat believes the fbi director may be anger to testify. >> if he asked the department of justice to knock it down and they refused, he may welcome the opportunity but he will have it on march 20th. >> russian president vladimir putin's spokesman confirmed they met with hillary clinton's advisors. >> white house spokesman said they believe the justice department will comply with the congressional request for documents. late today we confirmed they did ask the committee for more time. >> bret: let alone if the government shuts down because of the snow. >> they will kick it down the road a little further. >> bret: president trump held his first official meeting with his cabinet today despite
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missing four members that i've you have to be approved by the u.s. senate. it wasn't the only thing on the presidents plate today. john roberts joins us live from the north lawn. >> good evening. we should point out it just started snowing here outside the white house. president taking aim today at democrats, accusing them of holding up the last four nominees for the cabinet and in the face of renewed democratic opposition to his health care plan dug in for the fight. meeting for the first time with his almost complete cabinet, president trump kept up the sales pitch to repeal and replace obamacare, indicating the final bill may be substantially different than the one voted out of committee. >> it's a big, fat, beautiful negotiation hopefully will come up with something that's going to be really terrific. >> the beneficiary of a new health care plan will be the american people, the president insisted to. today holding a listening session with people he billed as victims of obamacare. >> we are cattle ranchers paid we can't afford our equipment if
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we are paying these rates year after year. our food source is in jeopardy because of the health care law. >> i know. it's all right. don't worry. don't worry. >> before it was even released, the press secretary dismissed the assessment from the congressional budget office, arguing the cbo has been wildly inaccurate when it comes to health care. >> this ebl was off by more than half last time. this is not about what my understanding or my belief of the cbo's play the last time they do this, they were wildly off. >> white house was pushing back on the saturday firing of preet bharara, u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york. >> this is standard operating procedure for a new administration around this time to ask for the resignation of the u.s. attorneys. we had a good chunk of them submitting their resignation letter. >> it's common practice for the
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attorney general to ask political appointees to resign. in 1993, janet reno asked then-u.s. attorney jeff sessions to step down. the president had made a point of asking preet bharara to stick around. >> i agreed to stay on. i have already spoken to senator sessions, and he asked that i stay on. >> on friday, preet bharara of the 45 remaining u.s. attorneys were asked to submit letters of resignation prayed when he didn't, he was fired. the president had put in a call to him two days before he was canned. >> the president was calling to thank him for his service. this is a standard, as i said, standard action taking place in most administrations. >> u.s. attorneys will be replaced by new hires. president is looking to eliminate as at least some positions across the administration.
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signing a new executive order investigating government efficiency. >> bret: john roberts. thank you. next day on wall street. dow is down 21.5. s&p 500 up nearly one. nasdaq finished ahead 14. another fight is mounting over president trump's second executive order on travel. more than a dozen states are now asking the courts to stop the latest ban from going into effect midnight thursday. tonight, dan springer reports on round two of the president's travel ban site. >> president donald trump revised ban is scheduled to take effect in three days. it will need to clear to legal challenges. hawaii seeking a temporary restraining order to block the executive order. >> if you are from one of these six countries you are presumptively terrorist. >> the lawsuit claims and a mom, an american citizen, can't bring
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his syrian mother-in-law to the u.s. government lawyers argue the revised travel ban is more narrow and provides for waivers. oral arguments will be heard wednesday meantime, washington state has been joined by five others, oregon, maryland, new york, massachusetts and california. nationwide injunction slapped on the original travel ban extended to the executive order 2.0. james robards will make the decision. his injunction drew angry tweets from president trump but was upheld by the ninth circuit court of appeals. >> they target judges who they believe are going to give them a favorable ruling. they tried to bring these cases in circuits where they are most likely to have injunctions upheld. >> at the heart of the cases are calls made by then canada tromped on a ban on muslims.
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department of justice lawyers contend candidates are not government actors and statements of what they might attempt to achieve are not official acts. >> simply no basis for the court to assume that because he said something as a candidate that's the reason he's doing something as president. >> government lawyers will have to respond by tomorrow with a motion to lift the injunction on the revoked travel ban. a flurry of legal briefs aimed at before the deadline. >> bret: secretary rex tillerson will make his first trip to asia this week. less than a week after north korea test launched four ballistic missiles and among ongoing controversy over the south china sea. doug mckelway reports. >> as secretary of state rex tillerson jets off to meetings in japan, south korea,
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and china tomorrow, regional tensions are rising with the pace of north korea's new missile testing. >> the missiles are flying into the ocean but if you map the ranges, they correspond to u.s. military bases and ports where we would bring reinforcements. >> state department confirmed the u.s. has deployed upgraded great angle armed drones with south korea in addition to high altitude defensive missiles. as japan's prime minister shinzo abe sends his country's newest largest worship i'm a a helicopter carrier, into the south china sea. state department and tillerson searching for a way to de-escalate tensions. >> next steps to put pressure on the regime to make them pay a price for their behavior. >> adding to regional tensions, china's man-made islands in the south china sea. in 2015, the president made the promise from the rose garden. >> translator: china does not intend to pursue militarization. >> 18 months later, the islands
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have runways, protected with antiaircraft guns. meanwhile president trump at home faces another foreign policy challenge, a weather-related postponement of angela merkel's visit tomorrow won't put off a reckoning over differences in immigration, the ukrainian union -- the european union. >> key trading partner for germany and the entire european union. the trade is an advantage for both side. >> germany exports twice as many goods to the u.s. as the u.s. exports to germany. >> one highlight, president trump will be hosting the saudi crown prince. the saudis have long been adversaries of iran but they seek new hope in the trumpet administrations opposition to the iran nuclear deal. >> bret: doug mckelway. thank you. next up, the panel's take on speaker paul ryan's hopes to
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repeal and replace obamacare. a look at the cbo report, the numbers and the impact
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>> of course the cbo is going to say if you're not going to force people to buy something they don't want to buy, they won't buy it. at the same time, they are saying our reforms will kick in a lower premiums and make health care more accessible. >> ten years from today, the president trump of the republicans have their way, there would be 24 million more americans without health insurance, a total of 58 million americans living in this country ten years from now will not have health coverage. that's not american. that's wrong. >> bret: chuck schumer reacting to the cbo numbers out today. congressional budget office. some stats from the report about
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the republican plan. the effects on the federal budget. g.o.p. bill would reduce federal deficits by $337 billion over 2017 to 2026. largest cost comes from repealing many of the tax increases in fees under obamacare. revenues would be reduced by $0.9 trillion. these are the numbers democrats are jumping on. 2018, 14 more -- 14 million more people would be uninsured. 2020, goes to 21 million. 2026, 24 million more uninsured. you have a lot of numbers there. cbo report affect on premiums. 2018 and 2019, this bill would tend to increase the average premiums in the nongroup market. average premiums for single holders would be 15% to 20%
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higher but then it would lower them by roughly 10% by 2026. it's a lot of numbers and people glaze over but those are the stats and the figures from the report. what does it all mean? let's bring in the panel. mollie hemingway, senior editor at "the federalist" ." hadas gold, and byron york. everybody is all scared of the snow but i tell you there are some republicans that are scared of this report. they knew it was going to be bad. speaker ryan says he's encouraged. >> it is saying that in the planet would be cheaper and lower premiums but a higher number of uninsured people relative to obamacare which had a lower number of uninsured people but was much more expensive. there's also an issue of the cbo estimates. they are notoriously bad. think back to 2010 when they said that under obamacare you would have 23 million americans insured. it's actually 12 million.
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they also made a forecasting error. dramatically underestimated the cost of medicaid. we need to keep this in mind. >> bret: it's also important to point out that as they pitch it, it's a three-phase thing whether that is realistic or not. second phase is second price of hhs, here's his reaction. >> they ignored completely the other legislative activities making certain we have an insurance market that works. we disagree strenuously with the report put out. we believe our plan will cover more individuals at a lower cost and give them the choices they want for the coverage they want for themselves and their family. not that the government forces them to buy. if you want to translate, they are saying they are going to put in market incentives in the third phase which would be another piece of legislation. >> right. the cbo report, seems as though there something in it for
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everybody to hate. it was a little bit confusing because we had administration votes coming out saying they strenuously disagreed and then we have paul ryan tweeting and his staff, tweeting the things they like about it. what's interesting that i didn't realize until today was that tom price is the one who put the current cbo director and his position, keith hall. there's a history there as well. clearly with these numbers, it's hard for a lot of people, everyday people who don't follow this every day, to follow. what's going to be hard to sell as the numbers the democrats are going to be pushing. millions of people are going to be losing their insurance, potentially. >> bret: what we don't hear from the democrats is what their solution is. obamacare is collapsing and insurance companies are going to leave. >> during the campaign, hillary clinton and other democrats gave their solution, more federal funding. i give paul ryan a e for effort in his interview with you but this is a terrible report.
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the idea of losing 24 million people off the coverage rules, voluntary or otherwise, it's a bad thing. even if they are off by half, it is still a bad thing. ryan is trying to turn into a positive by saying this is what freedom looks like. obamacare offered people a bad product which they didn't want to buy and we're going to offer them a product which more of them won't want to buy. it's not a solution, which i think what is going to happen is if this can pass in the house, it does go over to the senate where they just rewrite the whole darn thing and see what happens. >> bret: here is senator tom cotton from arkansas. >> do not walk the plank and vote for a bill that cannot pass the senate and then have to face the consequences. i'm afraid if they vote for this bill, they are going to put the house majority at risk next yea year. >> bret: democrats call this the btu-ing.
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they vote for something unpopular, at that point it was eight btu tax increase. senate doesn't pass it and the house people fall on their swords in the next election. ten the republicans make this a binary choice? if you do it, fine. if you don't, you are letting obamacare collapse and we can't move forward for >> they are trying to make it into a binary choice but not dealing with the underlying problems. even on something as simple as medicaid expansion. when you're looking at how you've had these proposals for putting everybody on medicaid expansion could we haven't looked at whether health care insurance is the same thing as health care. you look at medicaid, the study in oregon that showed that when you were on medicaid you had no better health outcomes than if you have no insurance at all. other studies show you might even have worse health care
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outcomes if you are not on medicaid, if you have no insurance than if you have medicaid. nothing in here, nothing we are talking about deals with the large-scale structural problems. people are going to have to lose elections over this it would be nice if they had something worthwhile to be losing over. i don't think this is what they are being offered paid >> bret: here is president trump at the white house today. >> the house feel bill will pre you and your fellow substance with more choices, far more choices, at lower costs. americans should pick the plan they want. now they will be able to pick the plan they want. they will be able to pick the doctor they want. i tell paul ryan. i tell everyone of them. the best thing you can do politically is wait a year because it's going to blow itself off the map. but that is the wrong thing to do for the country. it's the wrong thing to do for our citizens. >> bret: adding to fact, a tweet. "obamacare is exploding. it's a disaster. 2017 will be the worst year yet
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by far. republicans will come together and save the day." the question is how much president trump is going to put into the effort to get it across the finish line. >> that's the question britt i'm surprised the man who was the king of branding, we don't hear his name attached to the health care bill. >> bret: democrats say trumpcare a lot. >> they do. the administration, i think what trump is paying attention to is what his base is reacting to. we are seeing some of them come out on talk radio on certain sites and certain people who have established themselves as the trump base being not being big fans. i am sure they are seeing them describe it as obamacare lite and that's not something he wants to see. >> bret: some of the biggest fans are calling it ryan care. >> republicans created the problem for themselves when they talked for seven years about
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repealing every single word of obamacare. now they are in power. they have a republican president. they have to do it and they never in that time until now agreed on an actual plan to do it. you see why they didn't. it was very hard. they didn't really have a good plan. here again, i think you're going to see, this happen with obamacare as well. a bill going from the house to the senate and getting rewritten. >> bret: % chance something gets through congress to president trump's desk? >> 75. >> that's high. 55. >> not making any bets. >> bret: you are in the stephen hayes chair. that's what he does. next up, where we go from here on the wiretap claims and the u.s. attorney story.
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♪ >> president trump has to provide the american people, not just the intelligence committee, but the american people, with evidence that his predecessor, former president of the united states, is guilty of breaking the law. >> he doesn't really think that president obama tapped his phone personally. but i think there is no question that the obama administration, there were actions about surveillance and other activities that occurred in the 2016 election. the president used the word wiretap" to mean broadly, surveillance and other activities. >> we will have an open hearing on march 20th, we will ask the director of the fbi among others, is there any truth, have they seen any evidence. i don't think anyone has questions about this, george. the only question is why the president would make up such a thing. >> bret: this wiretapping question, the tweets, asking for
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evidence. late this afternoon, the department of justice issued a statement saying that the doj placed calls to the representatives, on intelligence to ask for additional time to review the request and compliance with the government legal authorities and to determine what response may exist. we are back with a panel. where do we go? >> i think you will find there is no evidence that barack obama ordered a wiretap on donald trump. but there were a lot of wiretaps in this case. go through some of the big news breaking stories on russia over the past six months and look for the word intercept or intercepted. almost all of the scoops that we have were based on intercepted phone calls and intercepted financial transactions, other intercepted electronic communications. there were a lot of wiretaps floating around. the intelligence community says, these were wiretaps of foreign
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persons, russian ambassador, russians in russia, that inadvertently picked up a u.s. person on the other end. it would be interesting to see what all of these are. i do think trump, by making this claim, and he always goes too far, by making this claim, will lead us to a little more understanding of this case. >> bret: hadas. >> i am really interested to see where this goes. i think it will keep going for a long time. it is not going to die for a while. i'm keeping my eye on the democrats, the house intelligence committee. they've already said they are willing to pull out of this investigation if they don't feel as though it is being done properly pulling their support would obviously sacrifice the role, vitally important to our democracy. they are in a really interesting position here. whether they pull out, that would be a really huge blow to what they are trying to do. >> bret: the russian ambassador, contacts, all of the questions surrounding that. here is vladimir putin's press secretary. >> if you look at how people
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connected with hillary clinton during her campaign, he would probably see that he had lots of meetings of that kind. but there were no meetings about election, electoral process. there was in no way, it should be per subsidize interference in the electoral process. >> bret: saying that the ambassador of met with clinton's people, too. >> isn't that interesting. the whole reason we have the story is because we have been party to a selectively operational part of intelligence officials. they have been leading people to believe that there is something that varies between trump and russia. it is high time for people to either put up or shut up and let the investigation continue. deborah nunez is heeling into the russian ties. also looking into this political operation of leaking, we need to let people do their work and get to the bottom of it. >> bret: in the meantime, u.s. attorneys who were asked for their resignation, 46 of them, has been quite a story.
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yet, the perspective, byron, seems to have been lost over the years. >> really, first of all, the person who said that all 94 u.s. attorneys got their notice on november 8th, that is true. if you are appointed by barack obama, u.s. attorney, you will leave with the new republican president. more than half of them had already done that. now, trump gets rid of the rest of them, and a lot of the press coverage acted as if there were only one u.s. attorney who were being fired in this case, u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york, preet bharara. this is absolutely routine. there is nothing unusual about it. >> bret: final word. >> it is routine, except the weight was done, it was fast. they were told to vacate their offices by midnight. in previous years, it was more of a staggered way. with preet bharara, he was asked to stay along, then, to say, you
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should go. you are right, it is a normal thing, i think we had a call in today, the canonization of preet bharara, perhaps pretty apt. >> bret: that is it for the panel. up next, the moment a son really sees his father for t ..es his father for t
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>> bret: finally, nine-month old reagan caldwell suffered from very poor eyesight due to complications at birth. his father, brandon caldwell was deployed before his young son got glasses to correct his vision.
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what you are about to see is the moment young reagan really sees his dad for the first time. [laughter] >> bret: that is just awesome. that is it for "special report." fair, balanced, and unafraid. tucker has a big interview on wednesday, >> it is tuesday, march madness, 50 million people bracing for blizzard at this hour and the
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snow just getting started tripling travel across the country blues live team coverage blue ridge abby: healthcare by the numbers, the cbo releasing analysis on the gop obamacare repeal bill but the trump administration says not so fast blue ridge >> not possible to have that number occur, it is not believable blues abby: breaking down the reports, the search for the bill, it is a big challenge blue ridge big challenge blue ridge clayton: snoop dogg under fire from mark assassination was funnier too far? we report inside blue ridge "fox
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and friends" first starts now. ♪ abby: so clever this morning. a little vanilla ice in new york city. they said it was coming and it is here blue ridge. blue ridge clayton:thanks for starting the day with us. we begin with the extreme weather on the northeast at this hour. abby: 50 million americans with two feet of snow, devastating coastal flooding. speech in schools virginia to maine already closed, people urge to stay off the road. abby: 6000